Category: The Forum

By Kelly McCutchen
In rural Georgia and across the country, the uncertain future and closure of emergency rooms and hospitals are all too common. A primary factor is the long-term impact of a federal law that requires hospital emergency departments to treat and stabilize all patients, regardless of their ability to pay.
This law, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), made the nation’s ERs the default health care provider for the uninsured. The federal government doesn’t cover the full cost of providing this care, however, making EMTALA a massive unfunded federal mandate.
Imagine addressing other social problems like this: Eliminate hunger by requiring all restaurants to serve hungry people regardless of their ability to pay the bill. Combat…
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It’s Friday!Events: Early Bird Registration is now open for the 2017 Georgia Legislative Policy Forum on Friday, October 13 at the Renaissance Atlanta Waverly Hotel. The theme for the daylong event is “Wisdom, Justice, Transformation,” with a focus on health care and education. Early Bird Registration is $100; register here. Details to follow! View previous events here.
Quotes of note
“When one side only of a story is heard and often repeated, the human mind becomes impressed with it insensibly.” – George Washington (1795)
“Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness. A genuinely unfashionable opinion is almost never given a fair hearing, either in the popular press or in…
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It’s Friday!Mark your calendar: The 2017 Georgia Legislative Policy Forum will take place October 13 at the Renaissance Atlanta Waverly Hotel. Details to follow!Quotes of note
“It has been a source of great pain to me to have met with so many among [my] opponents who had not the liberality to distinguish between political and social opposition; who transferred at once to the person, the hatred they bore to his political opinions.” – Thomas Jefferson (1808)
“We hate some persons because we do not know them; and we will not know them because we hate them.” – Charles Caleb Colton (1820)
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love…
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By Eric Wearne
As a new college year begins, consider these quotes:
“I have been told by the Chief of Police it’s not safe for me to be [here].”
“We confronted an angry mob as we tried to exit the building. … One thug grabbed me by the hair and another shoved me in a different direction.”
“You should not sleep at night! You are disgusting!”
A scene from the civil rights era? From a character in a Solzhenitsyn novel, sentenced to a Soviet Gulag camp? From a dissident in Cuba held political prisoner by Castro?
None of the above. These recent statements involve college professors who experienced protests or, in some cases, assaults by students on their campuses. Such…
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It’s Friday!Quotes of note
“An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy; because there is a limit beyond which no institution and no property can bear taxation.” – John Marshall (1819)
“A tax cut means higher family income and higher business profits and a balanced federal budget. Every tax payer and his family will have more money left over after taxes for a new car, a new home, new conveniences, education and investment. Every businessman can keep a higher percentage of his profits in his cash register or put it to work expanding or improving his business, and as the national income grows, the federal government will ultimately end up with more revenues.” – John F. …
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By Kelly McCutchen
With the failure of the federal government to address this nation’s health care crisis, the job now falls to the states. Fortunately for the states, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) provides them broad authority to restructure federal funding and regulations through the underutilized State Innovation Waiver.
Georgia is well-positioned to seize this opportunity and serve as a model to show the rest of the nation the way forward on health care reform.
“Crisis” is an overused word, but it describes the situation for many Georgia families. Premiums for policies on the Georgia ACA exchange have more than doubled over the past four years, and they could increase by up to 40 percent next year. In exchange for…
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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Sunday edition of August 6, 2017, published an op-ed by Georgia Public Policy Foundation President Kelly McCutchen on state-based solutions to health care. The op-ed is reprinted in full below; access it online on the newspaper’s website here.
Opinion: Ga. should seek flexibility waiver to help meet care needsBy Kelly McCutchen
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Sunday edition of August 6, 2017, published an op-ed by Georgia Public Policy Foundation President Kelly McCutchen on state-based solution to health care. The op-ed is reprinted in full below; access it online on the newspaper’s website here.
With the failure of the federal government to address this nation’s health care crisis, the job now falls to the states. Fortunately…
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By Benita M. Dodd
In March 2017, the Georgia House of Representatives voted to establish a Georgia House Commission on Transit Governance and Funding that sunsets by December 2019. The resolution cites the need to study developing a “unified regional governance structure;” “creating efficiency and coordination among providers;” “regional, integrated and comprehensive mass transportation,” and, “an analysis of potential methods of funding.”
The commission is charged with undertaking “a study of the conditions, needs, issues and problems mentioned above or related thereto and recommend any action or legislation.”
The commission met in June and August 2. Two meetings in, it seems the only problem is funding. The state’s alphabet soup of transportation agencies shared their progress and plans for…
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It’s Friday!Quotes of note
“We got ObamaCare because Republicans didn’t take care of the health care problems we already had. Let’s not make the same mistake.” – Star Parker
“Politicians sure are generous with other people’s money.” – John Stossel
“Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.” – Thomas PaineTransportationPoor policy: Prioritizing needs in mass transit…
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I thank you for what you do. For 15 years you’ve been researching and writing on issues that matter. You take on tough questions, you apply innovative thinking, you push for action, and you do it all without regard to politics.